Finally, someone gets it

photo © Adrian van Leen for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomain

And that someone is the New York Times. Specifically Well columnist Tara Parker-Pope.

Better to be fat and fit than skinny and unfit

A few choice quotes

Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. The data suggest that half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are “metabolically healthy.” That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.

At the same time, about one out of four slim people — those who fall into the “healthy” weight range — actually have at least two cardiovascular risk factors typically associated with obesity, the study showed.

See, fat =/= sick, skinny =/= healthy

The data follow a report last fall from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute showing that overweight people appear to have longer life expectancies than so-called normal weight adults.

But many people resist the notion that people who are overweight or obese can be healthy. Several prominent health researchers have criticized the findings from the C.D.C. researchers as misleading, noting that mortality statistics don’t reflect the poor quality of life and suffering obesity can cause.

That poor quality of life couldn't have anything to do with size discrimination, now could it?

“Why is it such a stretch of the imagination,” he said, “to consider that someone overweight or obese might actually be healthy and fit?”

A very, very, very good question.

Go read that article. This fat lady is going for her daily bike ride now.

On perverts

Boldly slurped from www.gymbox.net.
All credit is theirs, copyright to them or the owner of the picture.

This picture is of Oksana Chusovitina winning World Champion on vault in 2003

I just watched her win silver on vault in Bejing.

She's a 33 year old wife and mother, with a 9 year old son.

Let me try that again...She's 33 years old.

There is no reason why older gymnasts, older any kind of athlete, can't compete.

There is no reason why we can't groom our best college gymnasts for world competition, rather than our high school athletes.

There is no reason why girls have to starve themselves to the point of losing their periods to compete.

There is no reason except that the Baby Boomer perverts who are still in charge of this culture want to watch prepubescent children in skimpy outfits on television.

And by insisting that only the prepubescent body type is attractive, by only selling clothing to fit that type, by swearing against all medical science that only that body type is healthy and that any woman who allows her body to mature to full womanhood is going to die any minute of heart disease or cancer they are making one half of this country sick and miserable. All because of their perverse thing for children.

This is proof. Let all Gen X and Y take note. Look at the women in these Olympics, look at Dana Torres and Cheryl Haworth and Oksana Chusovitina and know, know, that beauty and health are possible at any age and any size and that it is so possible to be sexy past the age of 21. And as soon as those bastards finally retire, take control and start putting that message out there. Don't let our daughters suffer the way we have.


For more on the athletes:
Dana Torres
Cheryl Haworth
Oksana Chusovitina

For more on the medical science: JunkFood Science. I can't push it often enough.

And on the other hand

12 years old
Size 4
Runway model

First off, if you're on the other side of puberty, you're already fat an ugly by today's standards.

Second, when she hit a size 4, they started calling her obese.

Yea

Just keep telling yourself it's the world's problem, not yours.

Oh, BTW, the Olympics.

Gymnastics, diving, and every single beach volleyball match, prime time.

Woman's weightlifting, online only.

Again, yea...

A role model

Photo: David Harry Stewart

This is Cheryl Haworth. According to the NY Times:

Age: 25
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 300 lbs.
Resting Heart Rate: 75 beats per minute
Waist: 50"
Thighs: 32"
Biceps: 17"
Bench Press: 160 lbs.
Squat: 495 lbs.
Vertical Leap: 30"
Body Fat: 28-30 percent
Daily Calorie Consumption: 3,000-4,000
Flexibility: Can do splits both ways

"I started training when I was 13, so almost everything about my body is completely different now. I’m taller and a lot heavier than I was. When I say that my thighs are 32 inches, they’re really hard all of the way around, and my butt is huge from squatting all the time."

According to the Banana Republic website:


According to BR, their largest dresses will only go over this woman's thighs. And their size chart is uncommon only because it goes down to a size XX small.

She's been shut out of polite society. In fact, she's been effectively neutered by society, unable to meet their standards of femininity. Odds are the only clothing she can buy in the marketplace is sweats and t-shirts, if that, and her choices in colors will be white, heather gray, and navy blue. Clothing we consider so indicative of lower status in this society we routinely give it to prisoners to wear.

She's also supposed to be about ready to keel over from heart disease, cancer, and every other ill known to man, according to common wisdom. Although, if you go over to JunkFood Science and actually look at the studies, being heavier actually gives you a better chance of surviving those ills, especially as you age. But why believe actual science when it's soooo obvious she's not healthy.

She's also the #1 weightlifter on the US Olympic team, counting men AND women. She's ranked #3 or 4 in women's weightlifting overall, and stands a good chance of bringing home the gold this year.

I think my friend K is right, I think it has more to do with society still believing that strong =/= feminine, and that body mass = strong.

Go to the NY times slideshow, here, and look at all the different shapes and sizes top athletes come in. Then ask yourself why, as a society, we only consider gymnasts and ice skaters "healthy" and "pretty"

You can learn more about Cheryl here.

Here we go again

I'm going to have to find more clip art of babies.

Over at another blog, which I will leave nameless because having to admit to getting knocked up before marriage and thus breaking the Christians most loudly chanted rule is embarrassing enough, another potential confession has been posted. And this one is a doozy. I say potential because she doesn't come right out and say it, but...

Well, here

Dear Lady L,

I don’t know how you would have treated me had you met me when I was 19 and pregnant without benefit of marriage. At the same time, I have never felt that you, or others in the patriarchy/LAD crowd would have had much sympathy for someone in my situation.

And Lady L replies

A___, I don’t know how you assume that I did not always have “the benefit of marriage” or that I was not 19 and not pregnant myself. You have no clue about my life experience. You know nothing about me and your perceptions could be quite faulty

And no, A___ is not me. I kept my legs together until I was married. Not that I didn't have sex, but I knew better than to take the risk of full penetration. And besides, I was well out of my teens. But then I was brought up in an only nominally Catholic, truly secular world where we were taught to take responsibility for our own bodies and sexuality, and not give it up to the fantasy of a mythic deity.

But I digress.

Lady L, I believe that had you not gotten knocked up in your teens and before marriage you would have said something like "Even though I never had to face this issue..." or "Despite the fact that I had the benefit of marriage when my children were born.." or words to that effect. The way you phrased this makes me believe that you understand the issue on a personal level. Now I have not named or called out any of the other ladies here and I don't plan to do so to you. But you know who you are, you hold yourself up as a shining paragon of Christian Womanhood and Virtue, a perfect example for all the ladies around you. Based on your words here, I think you're more of a hypocrite.

Now I don't know you personally, so I could be quite wrong, and if I am I will apologize. My comments are open, as always, and I invite you to correct me. If you truly have lived up to the Christian ideal, if your deity actually did come through for you, please let us know. I would like to see one Christian lady who actually lived up to her ideals.

Positive Secular encouragement

Unlike the religious world, which tends to put women into a specific small box (You're a homeschooling homemaker, preferably with no college education, and you have a perfect house, family, menu, car, marriage, health and figure. If you're not, we don't want to hear it. And if you don't hide it well enough we will call you apostate and kick you out of our perfect church.) the secular world tends toward practical encouragement for all of a woman's choices. I've found women who don't put their mythology first and foremost to be far more understanding of the trickier times in life, like when you have to work and raise kids, or take care of elders as well as try to homeschool kids, or have health problems. Or just feel tired or burned out or confused. See, we don't consider bad times a sign of sin, or being non-elect, or being on the wrong side of a mythic deity. We just see them as part of life, things that can happen to any of us at any time, and that it makes the world a better place if we help each other along the way.

To that end, and to counter the negative vibe this place tends to take on at times, I'd like to present from time to time, some of my favorite, secular, homemaking information sources. And here are two:

1) The Vicky & Jen show. Talk about a positive, encouraging hour of listening. Recent topics include :

• #91 Kids and Drugs: Addiction Proof Your Child
• #89 Simple Self-Care
• #85 Elder Care Made Easier
• #73 Simple Safety Series: Girls Fight Back
• #66 Making Peace With Your Body
• #57 Kids and Sex: Covering the Bases with Logan Levkoff

They also feature The Big O series, with organizing expert Monica Ricci and the Ask-A-Chef series with Chef Devin Alexander. Fabulous, wonderful stuff, all of it. It does come with commercials, but no one ever crumbled from a ten second commercial for paper towels or breakfast cereal. And their theme music is a bit depressing, although not offensive and she does have a lovely voice. You can even subscribe in iTunes and listen while you do your chores. Highly recommended.

2) OrganizedHome.com. Tips and articles on how to clean your house, organize your kitchen, deal with clutter and the kids and even how to set up a household notebook. Without bible quotes no less! And their sister site, OrganizedChristmas, is the best thing ever to help you survive the holidays.

For example, ever notice how some years it seems like there's no time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and sometimes Christmas runs awfully late? That's because Thanksgiving is a floating holiday, the last Thursday in November. So depending on how the weeks fall you can have anywhere from three to five weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. How big of a pain is that to organize? Either you have to cram everything in, or it all drags on and you don't have enough to keep the kids happy. Well, here's a tip I learned from that site: Christmas is a fixed holiday, it's always on the 25th. What's the first fixed holiday before it? Yep, Halloween, on October 31st. Starting your organizing on the 1st of November gives you exactly 8 weeks to work with every time. For more great tips, and a Christmas binder too, check the site.

3) Doc's Secular Homeschool Resources - A set of homeschool plans and resources set in the reality based community. Excellent resources for those who want to explore different cultures, find evolutionary theory to be true, recognize that the world existed before the bible, and want their children to function in all of modern society. She unschooled her four, now happy, functional adult children, which isn't something the husband and I plan to do, but I can't deny the results. Fantastic stuff for all kinds of homeschoolers.

Hope this helps. I'll keep adding stuff as I find it.

Another reason to reject organized Christianity

photo © Daniel Steger for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike

Talk to sex abuse counselors and you will be shocked. Church is one of the safest places for predators. Pedophiles are known to even go to the pastor of a church and tell them their history. Of course the pastor has to keep the confidence (he thinks) because the guy says he is repentent. Over time, the pedophile abuses, leaves and seeks another church to do the same thing. Some pastors think they can’t even warn the other churches!

As to pastors and staff abusing…think about it…all we hear these days is about their ‘authority’, “office” and their special ‘anointing’ as men of God. The kid sees how the parents respect and honor the special ‘authorities’…so what kid is going to talk under those conditions? It is a perfect environment for a predator.

- Screen name Lynn

She makes a good point. After all, if you're repentant, or if you've confessed, or if you've given your sin over to God, or whatever you want to call it, the priest or pastor can't say a thing to warn anyone. And the rule of "touch not my anointed" protects priests and pastors and deacons and everyone else in a church leadership.But she's also forgetting the rule of "Once saved, always saves." Which means it doesn't matter to God if you rape little kids, you're saved. You're going to heaven anyway.

But the people who turn to the secular world, to CPS and the courts and the media, well, they're not following Matthew whatever the verse is They're not applying good biblical methodology. They might even be apostate, or whatever it's called, and not even be truly saved. They're just not Christian.

Now, I will grant you I have met some truly good and responsible Christian people, mostly through the forum where I found that quote. But nearly all of them have been good and responsible at one time or another by going against their church. And if you read their stories, all of them were told that their actions were unbiblical and unchristian, whether it was to leave an abusive husband or to stop a child predator or to have surgery to save their own lives so they could live to raise their surviving children. And all of them have stores about how remarkably good and kind the secular world has been to them at those difficult times. And yet their church, their faith, is still so wonderful, better than anything secular. It's a huge blind spot from what I can see.

Let's face it folks, all Christianity, and all organized religion is, is a giant Get Out Of Jail Free card, an excuse to do whatever you want to whoever you want, and your great mythological deity in the sky will forgive and forget every time. And when those of us out here in the secular world, who actually expect you to behave like am adult and a decent citizen call you on your actions, either by actually expecting you to take that bundle of joy home and be responsible for it or moving your children to a safe home or by sending you to prison, then we're persecuting you and you'll just be that much more rewarded in heaven.

Why is it that the secular world can't stand you? Because you use your deity like a crutch to keep from growing up and taking responsibility for your own lives, let alone trying to make the world a better place. And you end up leaving a wake of ruined lives behind you. We're the ones who have to pay for your poor after they send all their money to the preacher. We're the one who have to look after your kids after you abuse them for ruining your lives when you gave the responsibility to that mythic deity and he didn't come through. We're the victims when you decide to steal or rape or go shooting up a liberal, secular church.

And then you say you're a Christian, and you're forgiven and you're saved?

And you wonder why we're sick of you?

For more, go here.

http://stopbaptistpredators.org/index.htm
http://www.snapnetwork.org/

Another good Christian

Independent, Bible-believing, God- fearing, Saved by the blood of Jesus, and so on and so on....

When I was 17 I got pregnant with my daughter...., when I was 18 I married her father.

...and sexually irresponsible, can't keep her legs together.

I'm telling you the two go together.

On books

photo © Adrian van Leen for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomain

And not just these books.

Candy over at Keeping The Home, honestly one of the strangest women out there, recently said that she was re-organizing her home and putting in a new bookshelf because if she didn't the books would "take over her house". I would give you a direct quote but she doesn't keep links to her archives up. See, people tend to call her on her bullsh*t, which is hard to refute if people can c&p your exact words.

Anyway, in the corner of her living room she has a 6 shelf case which is half full of videos and plants, and she just put in what looks like a sunscreen display rack, which from the way she describes it, mostly holds her bible collection.

She also keeps this long book list on her blog, supposedly to show how well read she is. Mostly non-fiction at the junior high level, many of which she's reading for the umpteenth time through.

Needless to say, I'm not impressed.

I also seriously doubt she's really reading the more difficult fiction. Don Quixote was "funny"? Spare my ___

I'm concerned because she has her own little cult of Candy-ites going on there, who follow her every suggestion and recommendation like it came down from On High. I'm concerned that these young women and their daughters are going to look at her and think that that is the higest you can be, the best you can do.

It's not. And reading is my personal bugaboo.

Let me show you what a well-read house looks like






















This is what you see when you first come into my house. I can't really say what's where, but a lot of the hardcover fiction lands here.































This is the case beside my desk. Mostly sewing and knitting books, books on homekeeping, and some inspirational fiction.
















The case in the dining room, the one the husband made. All paperback fiction. In the desk beside it are the first editions and leather bounds. I want an all leather-bound library someday.


And I am going to stop there because Blogger is giving me fits about the pictures. We have cookbooks in the kitchen, non-fiction in the office (see those two in the first picture? We have two more of each in the office. Full.) romance by the bed, a full set of encyclopedias, some stashed in closets, some still out in the garage in boxes...the list goes on.

So I guess you could say they have taken over the house.

And before you ask, I've read about 80% of them. I haven't read all the husband's technical manuals or all the encyclopedias. I have read all the fiction.

In a house full of real readers, the books take over. They're friends, you can't just put them out.

And reading the bible over and over and over does not make you a real reader. Sorry.

If you want to read more blogs by some real readers I recommend the very secular Doc and the more religious Dawn.

Now if anyone would like to start a reading challenge, put it in the comments and we'll see what happens.

----

By the way, I know I have people reading, I can see you on Feedjit over there. So comment already, will ya!

Bone deep angry

I have never been this kind of angry.

When I was in the eight grade someone decided to donate dental floss for all the kids at school. Some of the idiots in my class decided to play with it at recess, making a mess and almost getting people hurt. My girlfriend and I avoided them, because they were being stupid. After recess the teacher read us all the riot act, then told whoever had been out there playing with dental floss to go clean it up. We sat there. We saw no need to volunteer for punishment, we hadn't been stupid.

I didn't buy a house I couldn't afford. I had enough brains to ask the mortgage people straight, simple question and when they couldn't give me straight, simple answers I walked away. I was not stupid. Now not only are my tax dollars going to clean up the mess but it's also going to reward the bankers. I have to pay for someone else's dental floss.

Time to suck it up, take the pain and the lesson, and move on. Those of us who are responsible will buy your house on the other side. We didn't screw up, we do *not* deserve the punishment. We're going to sit here and chat while you clean up your own mess.